Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Here is an interesting take on what could happen if Fred Thompson decides to run for office (from Liberty Update):

As of right now there are three front runners; Guliani, McCain, and Romney. Each spouting off a very similar big government neo-con message that differs only slightly. If each of these candidates stays out front until the election they will split the big-government neo-con electorate. If this happens, Ron Paul will need only 25%of the Republican primary vote (a few votes will most likely be split among the other 6 neo-cons as well). He'll have the full support of the small government conservatives since there will be no competition for that slot. In a state like Iowa where in 2000 there were 86,000 Republican primary voters he would only need 21,500 votes to win.

A very shrewd and interesting analysis, I'm (wishfully) hoping that he wins the nomination handily and the general election in a landslide. But I'll take the win in whatever form it comes in.

Saying "south american dictator" is like saying "smelly frenchman" or "brazilian supermodel" it's just part of the language. Our hemisphere to the south has a tradition of being taken over by strongmen.

It's no surprise that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez would try to takeover the oil assets of his country (it's the country's most valuable export). It's also no surprise that Chavez would try to eliminate dissenting voices as well. What has been surprising to me has been the reaction to his shutting down the TV station that broadcasts opposition programming critical of Chavez. Students, professionals, other citizens are demonstrating in the streets. Are we going to be witness to the overthrow of a dictator? I hope so. I also hope it's as bloodless as possible.

6:13 p.m.: We have now moved yet again, our fifth location today. We are now live, the only network in the world, on the street between protesters and the police. Thousands are amassed on the streets to me; to my left, they're chanting and singing, faced off with police; to my right, the police are shoulder-to-shoulder, standing under a major overpass. An armored car is wedged within the line.6:22 p.m.: Shots ... SHOTS FIRED! I grab a bag and slam it against a cement wall. It's as if I am standing on the banks of a roaring river. I'm close to danger, but safely on the bank. Rocks and bottles fly. The crowd scatters as the police lunge forward. I'm staying close to the ground and behind their shields. They open rapid fire with shotguns armed with rubber bullets. Some turn their heads as the blasts continue. Pop, pop, pop, pop ... we are against the wall. I sneak out, just a bit, to get our remaining piece of gear. My mask is covering my nose and mouth, in case of tear gas. I have goggles over my eyes. Some students have their own military-style gas masks. The police lunge further; the students have stopped about 100 yards away ... more rocks, more bottles. I grab my microphone with the FOX News logo andhold it up yelling, "PRENSA, PRENSA!" (Press, Press!) I duck in behind thepolice to get my photographer shooting video of the clash. Together, we dashback to safety.6:25 p.m.: The shooting stops and so does the rock throwing. The crowd chants again and the police retreat. Once again, there is a 20-yard space between the two. We are at an impasse. Periodically, over the next 30 minutes, students approach the officers with their hands in the air. Both sides talk, at least for a short bit and the standoff continues.6:50 p.m.:The students are still singing, but now they're sitting by the thousands. Theywill not move, and neither will the police. I also get a call; apparently thesame types of clashes are taking place near the American embassy, and I am toldthat a local cable station will be shut down by the government tonight.Globovision is a local cable channel, like RCTV, and it's critical of theChavez reforms. Rumor has it that the owners and main anchor will be arrested.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Transcript"For what it's worth, the 9th circuit panel of San Francisco has been reversed. The Internal Revenue service had ruled that Valerie and Robert McKee (or McKey?) had owed the government $31,000 in unpaid taxes until Valerie and Robert demonstrated in court that the tax law was so complex that nobody could understand it. And the court had to agree. The law was so complex that nobody could understand it and the court reversed itself and the IRS gets the bill. The government sought and got a stipulation that this verdict would not be made public. Well, it just was. Paul Harvey, Good day!"

Monday, May 28, 2007

Jeeez, Memorial day weekend isn't even over, and Lindsay Lohan is in the papers AGAIN. Let's see, she was arrested on Saturday for being intoxicated and for leaving her car after crashing it, the same car that the police found "useable amounts" of cocaine in. Well, it's monday and it turns out there are pictures of her passed out in a friends car this morning as well (maybe to celebrate getting out of jail?)

This is going to end up badly for her. She's not even 21 yet and it seems like she's been around forever. Maybe it won't, but I'm pretty sure that if your diet for the past 5 years has consisted of cocaine, vodka, and semen, it's pretty safe to say that a reexamination of lifestyle choices is in order. (I know I lifted that line somewhere, probably here, he cracks me up)

Saturday, May 26, 2007

a. Richard Marxb. Not being able to find a specific Richard Marx video on the internetsc. Finding a specific Richard Marx song on youtube but having it as background for a Buffy and Angel video montage

The correct answer is d: posting a blog that has Richard Marx in it over a Buffy and Angel montage

Friday, May 25, 2007

All of the political junkies out there who watched the second GOP debate a couple of weeks ago saw an exchange between Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul that could be considered the first round of battle in what ultimately could be considered the fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

Rudy Giuliani is America’s Mayor. He revived New York City, cleaned up Times Square, reduced crime, and boosted tourism to record highs. It was on his watch that New York City was attacked. By nearly all accounts, he handled that day and its aftermath better than one would have expected. His performance earning him accolades such as a Knighthood from the Queen of England, and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2002. He is a man of accomplishment who has shown leadership in the most trying circumstances.

Dr. Ron Paul is an OB/GYN who has delivered more than 4000 babies. He is an 11 term Congressman from Texas whose initial Congressional campaign run, by his own admission, was done on impulse. His reputation as a principled legislator who unfailingly measures his actions in Congress against what is explicitly expressed in the Constitution has earned him the moniker of “Dr. No”. He and his wife are proud parents of five children, and 17 grandchildren.

The contrasts between these two are numerous. Rudy is the man from the big city. Ron is the doctor from flyover country. Rudy’s personal life has been fodder for the gossip pages for years, having to endure a very ugly and public divorce. Ron, from what I’ve been able to glean from the tabloids, has five children and 17 grandchildren, and a wife named Carol. This is to say, you probably wouldn’t find him in magazines like US Weekly, or People, ever.

It is in the political arena that you would find the most differences, and they are stark. Rudy Giuliani has a campaign machine that is well financed, he is consistently named one of the leading contenders to win the nomination, and he currently polls in the top three as far as popularity among voters.

Dr. Paul has a fraction of the campaign funds that Rudy has. He is considered a second tier candidate, not even warranting inclusion in certain polls because of lack of name recognition. He is truly a grassroots candidate, his supporters, while not legion, are enthusiastic, vocal, energized, and active. They are technologically savvy and, through the internet, are able to communicate with each other as well as spread Dr. Paul’s ideas.

Like with Howard Dean in 2004, the internet is proving to be the great equalizer between Rudy and Dr. Paul in getting the nomination.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

If anyone out there saw the GOP debate last week, you would have seen this:

The exchange between Rudy Giuliani and Dr. Ron Paul certainly brought to life an event which up, until that moment, would more accurately be described as a Debate In Name Only (DINO). Out of the 10 candidates that night, 9 of them seem pretty interchangeable. Sure, Mitt Romney might have a better tan and more hair than Rudy. Also, John McCain is the only candidate I’ve seen who actually tried to paraphrase/sing the Beach Boys (badly and awkwardly at that). But if you look really closely, they aren’t much different from each other. I get the feeling that if the nomination came down to those three, I couldn’t bring myself to, once again, vote for the candidate who sucks the least.

If you take a look at my recent posts, it’s obvious I’m a Ron Paul supporter. Why him? Hope. History is littered with the wreckage of failed empires, the map of which our country is following. Entangling alliances, oppressive government policies on it own citizens, failure to protect and defend its borders, continued currency devaluation. It’s all there. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ron Paul gives me hope that it is not too late. That the ills our country faces in the near and long term can be cured. That the constant and increasing intrusion of our government into our lives can be stopped and the correlating freedoms that have been stamped out can be restored.

He gives me hope because he knows that the map to restoring our greatness exists, it is tried and true and it will work. When I say greatness, I don’t mean having the biggest and best military, we have that. There is greatness in the people that make up this country; for the most part we are generous, hardworking, optimistic, law-abiding citizens. When I talk about restoring greatness to this country, I am talking about setting its people free. Free to pursue our dreams, free to think what we want, free criticize our government, free to defend ourselves, free to choose how we live and free to fail and accept the consequences of that failure.

That is what America is about, choosing the path that makes the most sense to us. The audacious idea that each and every one of us has the ability to choose the life they want to lead because we know what’s best. That is what attracts people to us. That is why we won the great war against communism. That is what made my parents move half a world away with only each other to build their life around. That is what will save us from an economic and political meltdown.

I didn’t mean to turn this into a flag waving exercise but it turned out that way. I did intend to say that Ron Paul is the man whose vision of what our country once was and once again can be, and how to get there is most aligned with mine.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Question: What do Virginia Tech's 32 murders, Columbine High School's 13 murders, Jonesboro Westside Middle School's five murders, Germany's Gutenberg High School's 16 murders, the murder of 14 legislators in Zug, Switzerland, and the murder of eight city council members in a Paris suburb all have in common?

What Ron Paul was addressing was the question of what turned the allies we aided into haters of the United States. Was it the fact that they discovered we have freedom of speech or separation of church and state? Do they hate us because of who we are? Or do they hate us because of what we do?Osama bin Laden in his declaration of war in the 1990s said it was U.S. troops on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, U.S. bombing and sanctions of a crushed Iraqi people, and U.S. support of Israel's persecution of the Palestinians that were the reasons he and his mujahedeen were declaring war on us.

I'm posting the comments I've made at www.ace.mu.nu because it's a crapload of typing I did over there in reaction to Ron Paul at the debate. I tried to format it and fix some links that were broken. You can see the whole thread here:

My original comment:

I'm putting my support behind Ron Paul because he's the "strictconstructionist" candidate. I don't think for a second that if Congress formallydeclared war after 9/11 against Al Qaida Paul would have a problem sendingtroops, ships, or nukes (if necessary) to whatever craphole needed to bedouched.

It bothers me that we, as a party, want to send judges to the SupremeCourt who will follow the the Constitution to the letter but when it comes toelecting a President or Congress it doesn't apply.Posted by: Randolphus atMay 16, 2007 03:48 AM (5naUR)

171I'm putting mysupport behind Ron Paul because he's the "strict constructionist" candidate. Idon't think for a second that if Congress formally declared war after 9/11against Al Qaida Paul would have a problem sending troops, ships, or nukes (ifnecessary) to whatever craphole needed to be douched.

How do you reconcile thatbelief with his anti-interventionist rhetoric? Paul made his views onforeign policy very clear last night.Posted by: Slublog at May 16, 200709:15 AM (R8+nJ)

172 I don't care howmany advanced degrees he has, anyone who believes what Paul said last night, isa moron. And anyone who thinks that Paul believes exactly the opposite ofwhat he said, is also a moron. People like Paul, and anyone who playsapologist for him, should be shunned.And don't bother with the fancy latin wordsfor name-calling. As far as I'm concerned, sometimes it really is thatsimple. Truther = Moron.Posted by: Mob at May 16, 2007 10:19 AM(f+cPk)

173I don't thinkfor a second that if Congress formally declared war after 9/11 against Al QaidaPaul would have a problem sending troops, ships, or nukes (if necessary) towhatever craphole needed to be douched.

So exactly what do you call it when Congress authorized the United States to commit what are unquestionablyopen-ended military acts of war against other powers? I did not notice theConstitution's required form for a declaration of war. Is it in anappendix maybe?

As for the "debate" over whether an MD can be a moron, some ideasare so amazingly dumb they seem to require advanced degrees for people topromote them.Posted by: VRWC Agent, BA, BA, JD at May 16, 2007 12:51 PM(Z3AmO)

Being a strict constructionist doesn't come close to excusing TheCrazy. I'd love to see the federal government return to performing onlythose powers allowed for in the Constitution and the end of the 10th Amendmentbeing ignored, but that's not going to happen overnight, and it sure as hellisn't going to happen under Ron Paul.In closing- Fuck You for supportingthis Blame America First Truther douchebag.Posted by: Hollowpoint at May 16,2007 01:16 PM (plsiE)

175 How do youreconcile that belief with his anti-interventionist rhetoric? Paul made hisviews on foreign policy very clear last night.

I believe that since he's astrict constructionist, Ron Paul would act and prosecute a war if it wasdeclared by Congress. To not do so, would be failure to discharge his duties asPresident. The question then becomes, do people think that he wouldn't followthe Constitution to the letter? I would say following the Constitution is whatmakes him appealing.Posted by: randolphus at May 16, 200701:20 PM (5naUR)

176So exactly whatdo you call it when Congress authorized the United States to commit what areunquestionably open-ended military acts of war against other powers?

An abdication of Congress in its duty. By authorizing military force, it givesCongress cover if the war doesn't go as planned, it can be blamed on thePresident. By declaring war, its a commitment from Congress to say yes or no,not it depends.Posted by: randolphus at May 16, 2007 01:48 PM(5naUR)

177I believe that since he's a strict constructionist, Ron Paul would act and prosecute a warif it was declared by Congress. To not do so, would be failure to discharge hisduties as President. The question then becomes, do people think that he wouldn'tfollow the Constitution to the letter? I would say following the Constitution iswhat makes him appealing.

Where in the Constitution does it spellout the need for a non-interventionist foreign policy? I don't have aproblem with Paul's reading of the Constitution - I have a problem with hisrefusal to see the world as it is.We no longer have the luxury ofisolationism.Posted by: Slublog at May 16, 2007 02:09 PM (R8+nJ)

178By authorizingmilitary force, it gives Congress cover if the war doesn't go as planned, it canbe blamed on the President. By declaring war, its a commitment from Congress tosay yes or no, not it depends.

Huh? Sorry, dude, butauthorizing the use of military force against someone is a declaration ofwar. Unless you believe it is possible to blast an enemy's infantry, razetheir buildings and roll tanks down the streets of their capitol without makingwar on them. The Constitution does not require a magic phrase to beuttered when war is declared and no magic phrase would prevent the traitorousleft from undermining any war in which our interests are at stake. Had thewar resolution been called "The Really Super-Official and Extra-ExplicitConstitutional Declaration of War By Congress," the phrasing would not change asingle criticism or strategy to undermine the war effort. Not one.Yourargument is silly.Posted by: VRWC Agent at May 16, 2007 08:34 PM (gjy1/)

179Had the warresolution been called "The Really Super-Official and Extra-ExplicitConstitutional Declaration of War By Congress," the phrasing would not change asingle criticism or strategy to undermine the war effort. Not one.

The February 6, 2006 testimony of Alberto Gonzales to the U.S. Senate JudiciaryCommittee Hearing on Wartime Executive Power and the National Security Agency'sSurveillance Authority, indicates there is a distinction:GONZALES: There wasnot a war declaration, either in connection with Al Qaida or in Iraq. It was anauthorization to use military force. I only want to clarify that, because thereare implications. Obviously, when you talk about a war declaration, you'repossibly talking about affecting treaties, diplomatic relations. And so there isa distinction in law and in practice. And we're not talking about a wardeclaration. This is an authorization only to use militaryforce.

There is absolutely a difference between an AUMF and adeclaration of war (which grants much more power to the Executivebranch). One of the biggest being that Congress doesn't have as much room topoliticize the prosecution of the war. If you look at our declaration ofwar against Germany in 1941, you can see that the language has no caveats.Compare that to the AUMF in Iraq. I would argue that with a formal war declaration, criticisms such as warrantless wiretaps, and holding terror suspects in Guantanamo would have been neutralized to a certain extent because there is justification in doing so http://johnshadegg.house.gov/RSC/DeclarationofWar.PDF see page 3. Posted by: randolphus at May 17, 2007 03:03 AM(5naUR)

180Where in theConstitution does it spell out the need for a non-interventionist foreignpolicy? I don't have a problem with Paul's reading of the Constitution - Ihave a problem with his refusal to see the world as it is.We no longer have theluxury of isolationism.

I don't think that non-interventionist andisolationism are synonymous. Isolationism to me means we don't trade or havecontact with anyone outside of the US. Non-interventionist means to me we don'tget into places like Darfur, or Somalia, or Kosovo because it's none of ourbusiness. We get our troops out of Europe and Japan and Korea and let them payfor their own defense. We get out of the UN and kick them out of Turtle Bay. Ifyou want to trade with us, then lets trade. The other (and moreimportant) part of a non-interventionist policy would be to make it clearthat if you fuck with us then we turn into Denzel in "Man on Fire" and tearapart who ever it is and their families piece by piece. The failure ofClinton's foreign policy was that terror groups thought they could strike us(and they did) and our response would be weak (and it was). So much so that on9/11 there was footage on the news from some country (in the Middle East) wherepeople were out in the streets cheering. If there were any other blatant sign ofour foreign policy shortcomings at that time I can't think of it. The onlyreactions that I should have seen on the news that day were expressions ofsympathy and allegiance with us. Or, silence because of the collective worryand "oh shit we shouldn't have done that" that was going through the mindsof our enemies from what our response was going to be.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Why Ron Paul? Because he's the strict constructionist candidate with the track record in Congress that doesn't make me wretch. 2008 is going to be the election that will be a milestone for the GOP. Is the idea of individual freedom dead? Is out of control government spending and intrusion into its citizens lives the wave of the future? Are Romney, Giuliani, and McCain really what the mainstream of the GOP really want? Stay tuned.My prediction is that Congressman Paul is going to make a lot of noise over the next year.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Why? Because what is old is new. Milton Friedman is the man whose ideas relegated Keynes to the ideological and historical dustbin. We need to keep Keynes there.

Milton Friedman:

Gore Vidal vs. William F Buckley - A discussion about the Constitutional right to assembly turns into Vidal calling Buckley a "crypto nazi" and Buckley in turn responding by calling Vidal a "queer" Hat tip "Hot Air"

The candidate labelled by Peggy Noonan as "obscure but intellectually serious" Ron Paul has hit a chord with the political junkies who pay attention to debates conducted 18 months before an election. His message, based on initial readings of an informal poll by MSNBC after the Republican debate last Thursday by supporters of the Congressman (including this blog) and others, show that a campaign run on adherence to the Constitution might have resonance for members of the party that had lost majority control in Congress in 2006. From the Ron Paul for President blog:

Paul realized a massive decrease in net negatives (a favored indicator early in the Primaries). This places Paul's negative rating the lowest among ALL CANDIDATES by far and his positive just ahead of 2nd place candidate Romney.

McCain and Giuliani both got hammered good on their positive rating 11% and 13% with Giuliani registering 5% more negatives than before the debates.

Romney seems to have helped himself improving both his positive and negative rating but these numbers indicate a coming out party for Ron Paul.

The Drudge Report had the Reagan Derby Poll that showed Congressman Paul came in 3rd place behind Romney and Giuliani after the debate. The gap between Giuliani and Paul in this vote was 2 percent (out of 102,805 votes)!

His message, and his voting record in Congress, appeal to the strict originalist that the conservative base looks for in Supreme Court nominees. Which begs this question: Why shouldn't our expectation of all branches of government be fidelity to the Constitution, especially from the Republican Party? Why isn't there more campaigning for strict constructionist Presidents and Congressman?

Take a look at some of the reaction from other conservative blogs on Ron Paul at the debate:

Ron Paul: Someone needs to be a friend to this man and tell him to go homenow.Heading Right

Ron Paul also showed that he should depart the race as quickly as possible.He gave one-note answers about federalism and the original intent of thefounders for every question asked of him.Captains Quarters

Based on those reactions, mainstream conservative blogs weren't too impressed by the Congressman from Texas. To which I would say, "If its good enough for the Supreme Court, it should be good enough for the President!" (I give permission for the Paul campaign to use that as a blurb)

Friday, May 04, 2007

Ford Models has a youtube channel that has clips of models doing various things. Anyway, I found three that have a model doing yoga. She's cute in a goofy, nerdy, sort of way. But you can see she's very flexible. Also, as someone who is also a model and into yoga, I can tell you that the handstands are tough. Good job!

So, aside from the mental and physical benefits that yoga can deliver what else can yoga do? Why fight off two highly trained kung fu masters of course:

The democratic candidates wouldn't go on Fox because they said Brit Hume isbiased. But, they have no problem whatsoever with letting Chris Matthews hostthe republican candidates who had the decency to appear on MSNBC.

Here was one of the last questions that Matthews asked last night at the Republican debate: “Would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?” No bias at all. At the next debate, the moderator should ask the candidates "Would it be good for America to have Carter back living in the White House?"

Mitt Romney came across as very presidential, but he reminded me a little too much of George Hamilton: a little too polished and too slick.

Ron Paul is the dark horse candidate, a lot of his positions do not hold sway with the social conservatives of the Republican party, however, his stances appeal to the activist/internet generation. Which skews, I believe a lot more libertarian anyways. The war in Iraq would be the achilles heel for obtaining the nomination for Dr. Paul in the sense that most of the Republican party is wedded to staying in Iraq for as long as it takes. Dr. Paul's position on leaving immediately could be labeled as "cut and run" by his opponents.

No questions on nominating justices to the Supreme Court? If there were any comments about it I missed it.

"Glengarry Glenn Ross" with Alec Baldwin in the only non crappy role he has ever had. Now that I think about it he's pretty good on "30 Rock":

Michael Douglas in "Wall Street": "Greed is good" was the catch phrase written by hippie/director Oliver Stone that was turned into the rallying cry of the Reaganites of the 80's.

R Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket": Gunnery Sergeant Ermey (he is a real life Marine) tells stories of people even today who have come up to him and tell him it would be an honor if he would choke them.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

I started watching Veronica Mars when I found them filming in downtown San Diego (I thought they were going to start filming "Renegade" again) and let's be honest, she's totally my type. Witty, smart, well-written, sort of like Buffy meets Nancy Drew meets JB Fletcher. Check out the big brain on her.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

His latest column links the VT shooter to the influx of immigrants to the United States:

What happened in Blacksburg cannot be divorced from what's beenhappening to America since the immigration act brought tens of millions ofstrangers to these shores, even as the old bonds of national community began todisintegrate and dissolve in the social revolutions of the 1960s...Before 1970,we were a people, a community, a country. Students would have said aloud of Cho:"Who is this guy? What's the matter with him?" .

See, this is where he loses me, when he makes his point about the inherent flaw of having a "gun free zone" I'm with him. But what Pat fails to note is that one of his instructors demanded that Cho be removed from the class she taught because of the red flags he was waving (the violent imagery in his writings, for example). It's not even mentioned. Also, Cho had a record of sending threatening and harassing emails to women. So yes, the people around him were wondering what was wrong with him. No one who could do anything about it did anything about it. That was the problem.